After one of the driest years on record, local growers, livestock owners and farming experts are reviewing the damages caused by the drought and what needs to be done to prepare for the future.

Carolyn Taylor, executive director in Carroll County of the Farm Service Agency, said the county received 24.6 inches of rain in 2007, and drying water sources and high temperatures severely compromised local farmers’ pastures and hay yields. She said that 2007 was especially devastating because 2005 and 2006 were also dry years.

Carroll County Extension Service Coordinator Bill Hodge said that 2007 had a devastating affect on both growers and livestock owners in Georgia. There are an estimated 1,700 to 1,800 small farms in Carroll County, but most farmers are part-time and have other means of income. Poultry is the biggest agricultural industry in the county, followed by beef cattle.

Carroll County has about 330 broiler houses in Carroll County, many of which house between 28,000 and 30,000 chickens. And each house needs plenty of water. Poultry farmers primarily need water for the chickens to drink and providing water for such a large number of animals can be difficult during dry years.

“The poultry growers, the big impact for them has been (that) there have been a number of wells go dry or their production lowered, and they’ve had to go on municipality water, and that gets pretty expensive,” Hodge said.

For livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep and horses, farmers are hardest hit by the rising cost of the hay the animals eat because the drought causes decreased pasture production, which means an increase in costs for farmers.

“Fertilizer and fuel costs have gone out the roof, so these hay producers have got to charge more just to break even,” Hodge said.

Many local farmers resorted to selling a percentage of their herds in 2007 to minimize their financial damages. In most years, Hodge said, between 1 and 3 percent of local cattle are sold, mainly because their owners are aging or because their land is being taken out of agricultural production. In 2007, that percentage rose significantly.

“I have seen some numbers recently that would say that somewhere between 10 and 16 percent of the cattle in Georgia have been sold,” Hodge said.

Livestock owners were not the only ones hit hard by the drought. Local grower and livestock owner Janet Holbrook of Bowdon said that growing fruits and vegetables during a dry season requires more labor and yields smaller crops. Holbrook, who has been growing for about 10 years, grows tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, melons and other vegetables and sometimes sells them at the Cotton Mill Farmers Market.

“Each year, it was getting a little rougher without the water,” she said.

Holbrook said she planted the same number of vegetables last summer as she normally does, but her turnout was much lower. She harvested about one-third of the potatoes she planted, and her cucumbers died out completely.

“You usually have to wait for a frost to kill those kinds of things, but the plants are dying sooner,” she said.

In addition to a general lack of water, Holbrook said insects were more problematic in 2007 than they have been in years past. Holbrook uses no pesticides in her garden and believes that moisture-seeking insects killed the majority of her melon crop.

“So they were really sucking the life out of the fruit to get the moisture out, I assume,” she said.

Holbrook raises dairy goats as well. She said that the hay she uses to feed her goats has not only increased in price, but also decreased in quality.

“It costs me more to keep my goats this year,” she said.

Cindy Haygood, coordinator of the Rolling Hills Resource Conservation and Development Council, a nonprofit organization that advocates natural resource protection in nine counties across northwest Georgia, said local growers had to find creative ways to keep their crops alive. Many local growers have started relying more heavily on drought-tolerant plants, mulching their soil and conserving rain water any way they can.

Hodge said that vegetables such as peppers, cabbage, corn and others have higher water requirements, while green beans, beets, carrots and greens are more drought-tolerant.

Mike Gilroy of Bowdon, project director for The Growers School, a Georgia Organics board member and a lifelong gardener, said his plants have not suffered as much as some other growers’.

Gilroy, who grows a variety of vegetables on The Growers School demonstration plot on the University of West Georgia campus, protected his plants by mixing a significant amount of mulch and other organic materials like sawdust and chicken litter into his topsoil. It maintained its moisture through much of the fall, he said, and many of his plants are still growing now.

“If you have the organic material in the topsoil to begin with, it will hold that moisture,” he said.

In addition to mulching the soil, Hodge recommends that growers find a way to irrigate their crops with water from nearby streams or rainwater, if possible. But many of those smaller water sources ran dry last year.

“There are numerous streams, springs, ponds in the area that are dry, and it’s going to take a significant amount of rainfall to recharge those,” he said.

Holbrook mulches her soil regularly and collects rain in barrels to water her garden. She also attaches a large water bottle to a cone and leaves it in the ground near her plants so that water seeps into the soil slowly, while the mulch helps retain moisture.

“Because that hay is there, it keeps evaporation from happening too quickly,” she said.

For livestock owners, Hodge recommends rotational grazing, wherein a farmer subdivides a pasture, allows the animals to graze in one section for a time and then moves them to another part of the pasture to graze. He also recommends keeping only the best animals and selling off any with major flaws, such as bad feet or udders.

For poultry farmers, the situation is more complicated.

“The poultry people are kind of in a tough situation because they’ve got these houses, and they’ve got to keep them in production to make their payments if they have them and generate dollars for their livelihood,” Hodge said. “It’s not like they can just shut them down.”

Although 2007 proved to be a difficult year for many growers and livestock owners, there are several programs available that may help them recover somewhat. Haygood said that the Resource Conservation and Development Council allows local farmers to rent no-till drills, which she said is a more efficient and environmentally sound means of planting grass. She said that unlike typical planting techniques, the no-till drill plants seed directly into the ground, saving time and fuel for the farmer.

Haygood said that two of the no-till drills are available to Carroll County farmers and are mainly used to overseed grass.

“It gives them a chance to plant pastures, but it also protects our water quality,” she said.

Taylor said that the Farm Service Agency is offering a livestock compensation program to compensate farmers for pasture losses during 2005 or 2006. She said that they are still taking applications for the program, and the money returned can be spent however the farmers choose.

“Well, most of them need the money because this year has been such a devastating year,” she said. “Most of the farmers could use the money to help purchase seed to carry them through the winter.”

Several local groups are working to provide education for local growers and livestock owners. The Growers School, which Gilroy said is sponsored by the National Resource Conservation Service, is set to begin classes Jan. 26. The classes are intended to provide education on sustainable agriculture and encourage farmers to grow local, healthy food.

Hodge said the Carroll County Master Gardeners will sponsor a spring seminar at the Carroll County Agriculture Center about xeriscaping - landscaping techniques designed to minimize water usage.

When it comes to the future of growing in Georgia, the major concern Hodge mentioned is water conservation. He said that it will take a significant amount of rainfall in 2008 to fill the ponds and streams that dried in 2007.

“If we get the same amount of rain in ’08 as we did in ’07, all of it is cumulative,” Hodge said. “We’ve got to have more to regenerate those potential watering sources and also to help our water table.”

Hodge suggested that homeowners, as well as growers, look into new ways of conserving rainwater and other available moisture.

“Water is something that we’ve taken for granted during the years, but we need to be more conscious of our water conservation,” he said.